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Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study
- ChuckMcM 8y agoPretty cool. Although its early days yet. I still worry about back doors that would allow the watch to be used as a lie detector surreptitiously.
- Despegar 8y agoAren't lie detectors junk science?
- varjag 8y agoIn the same way statistical spam filters are junk† science. They suffer from false positives/negatives issues, but they perform a lot better than coin toss. † Granted spam filters literally deal with junk..
- lawn 8y agoNot arguing either or but a coin toss is a very low bar.
- greenhatman 8y ago>but they perform a lot better than coin toss I'm curious how that was tested. And if there is a source for this.
- germinalphrase 8y agoOnly if you think their purpose is to detect lies.
- raincom 8y agoIt is not 'junk' as long as Federal Agencies use it!!
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- joshvm 8y agoThey're based on the idea that if you're made to tell a lie, your body will react in some way (sweating, faster heartbeat etc) compared to a baseline measurement. There is a whole field of psychology around lying and additionally agents are ostensibly trained to detect visual cues that someone is telling a lie. The premise isn't exactly junk - hardware lie detectors are basically trying to identify a fight or flight reaction, which some people will exhibit when lying. Have you ever been confronted with a fact (did you eat that cookie?), lied, and felt a rush or a feeling of panic? That's what lie detectors try to detect. The problem is it's possible to fool a polygraph and it's prone to bias. For example some people get nervous when asked a question, even if innocent. It's theatre in some sense, and it shouldn't be assumed as 100% accurate, but there are plenty of people who will break out into a cold sweat when you ask them a question they don't want to answer truthfully.
- greenhatman 8y agoIt's borderline useless. And can do lots of harm if assumed that it's useful.
- joshvm 8y agoI wouldn't disagree with that. And a big problem is that innocent people tend to produce stress reactions when interrogated, leading to false positives. It would be appropriate to call a polygraph a "fear" detector, since that's basically what it's measuring. But still, the "science" isn't entirely bunk: some people do panic when they lie - though I read an anecdote that said this is a weirdly American trait (Europeans can cheat the polygraph more easily) - but it's virtually impossible to sift out the true positives from the noise.
- staticassertion 8y agoI'm more concerned with the data being sold/ leaked and it impacting insurance premiums.
- threeseed 8y agoWhen has Apple ever sold or leaked data to third parties ?
- staticassertion 8y agoNot sure - never to my knowledge. I'm still allowed to be worried. This issue is also not really apple specific - Android has health monitoring features, and I trust OEMs a lot less. I'm not stating that this has happened, but yeah, I worry.
- ERD0L 8y agoMeanwhile WearOS is a joke both in hardware and software
- pensatoio 8y agoI understand qualms with the software, but what about the hardware is a joke?
- MBCook 8y agoThe Qualcomm chips used are a few years old because there isn’t enough demand for Qualcomm to make faster ones. So it’s WAY behind the chip in Apple watches in terms of performance. Even if wear OS was better (never used it myself) it couldn’t compete.
- saagarjha 8y agoThis is pretty much true. Google doesn't seem to particularly care about Wear OS, Qualcomm can't make a decent chip for it, and manufactures aren't coming out with anything compelling. With wearables, it really does seem like it's mostly Apple Watch along with Fitbit, Garmin, and a few others.
- maxhille 8y agoI am pretty happy with mine (Fossil Sport). Lasts about 2 days on a charge while the display is always on, has all the sensors and most important, I can run my own software on it.
- hannob 8y agoIt should be noted though that this study does not say that an Apple Watch will overall provide medical benefits. It also doesn't follow automatically from the fact that it detects things with a certain reliability. The interactions of early detection and medical benefits and downsides are complicated and it will require a lot more science to figure out whether a device like an Apple Watch can provide benefit.
- Despegar 8y ago>It also doesn't follow automatically from the fact that it detects things with a certain reliability. There's more information on this here: https://www.apple.com/healthcare/site/docs/Apple_Watch_Arrhythmia_Detection.pdf https://www.apple.com/healthcare/site/docs/Apple_Watch_Arrhy...
- jacquesm 8y agoLike with any medical test: if you do more tests you will find more incidence. The same thing happened with various forms of cancer screening. If we were to test everybody for everything very few people would be found to be 100% and a lot of unnecessary procedures would be the result. Given the obesity problem this result should not be a surprising finding anyway.
- eriktrautman 8y agoAre you advocating that we shouldn't bother testing instead? I'd imagine that many people would be quite interested in knowing the ways they're not 100% that might actually kill them... like cancer.
- ColanR 8y agoIt's a question of false positives and false negatives. Most medical tests have a decent percentage of both. > Screening test results may appear to be abnormal even though no cancer is present. A false-positive test result (one that shows there is cancer when there really isn't) can cause anxiety and is usually followed by more tests (such as biopsy), which also have risks. [1] [1] https://www.cancer.gov/types/colorectal/patient/colorectal-screening-pdq https://www.cancer.gov/types/colorectal/patient/colorectal-s...
- EliRivers 8y agoIf you simply go looking, you'll find a lot of abnormalities associated with various conditions that turn out to be false positives and, for that person, fairly normal. Here's a piece on the subject; http://www.journalgazette.net/features/20180604/anomalies-in-human-body-so-normal-everyone-has-them http://www.journalgazette.net/features/20180604/anomalies-in...
- pfranz 8y agoNothing specific to this article, but this comes up often in medicine. Sure, you can pay to run more tests, find some things earlier (along with some false positives), but the outcomes and treatment aren't any different than if you waited for more obvious symptoms and could take a more accurate test.
- robertlf 8y agoI stopped reading at "funded by Apple Inc."
- gatherhunterer 8y agoMost medical studies are not publicly funded[1]. You just dismissed the majority of medical research done in the U.S. in at least the last ten years. There are potential problems with private funding compromising studies but without any specific complaint this is just a baseless dismissal. 1. https://hub.jhu.edu/2015/12/15/industry-funded-clinical-trials-may-threaten-objectivity/ https://hub.jhu.edu/2015/12/15/industry-funded-clinical-tria...
- MBCook 8y agoPlus, this study had 400k people in it. This isn’t exactly a small “well we tried it on 20 people” study, it’s much higher quality.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- briandear 8y agoDo you think Apple and Stanford have a reason to falsify their results? Is it a sane, credible reason, based on actual history of those organizations falsifying medical research? Or, is it just an opposition related to malfunctioning tin-foil headgear? Is Stanford not a credible enough institution?
- saagarjha 8y ago> Do you think Apple and Stanford have a reason to falsify their results? Of course they do. It's just that if they did, there would likely be huge consequences for them, which makes one hope that they didn't do so in this case.
- Zanni 8y agoIf I'm reading this right, the Apple Watch was actually more accurate in detecting arterial fibrilation episodes than the ECG patch they used for initial confirmation. The Apple Watch identified 2,000 people. The patch confirmed 33% of those, but then another 51% were confirmed by some undisclosed method.
- tedivm 8y agoThat's not an accurate interpretation. Atrial fibrillation episodes are not constant- they come and go, and different people will have them at different frequencies. It's possible that people had an episode while wearing the watch but haven't had any episodes while wearing the ECG. ECGs are also less comfortable to wear than watches, so it's possible the people they sent them to didn't wear them as often (it's even possible that they didn't wear them at all).
- alsetmusic 8y agoA proper study would probably compare the amount of hours of data.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- SlowRobotAhead 8y agoAll good arguments for the watch it seems. I was a little eye roll at the ECG feature Apple added, but I’m happy to be proven wrong.
- rootusrootus 8y agoThe ECG really has it's moments. I have arrhythmia (not Afib) and it's handy to be able to correlate what I'm feeling with actual evidence. And I can print it out and take with me at my next appt to discuss with the doc. But if you have a perfectly boring, normal heart, I can see not using it very often. At least it's unobtrusive if you aren't interested in it.
- 8y ago
- aboutruby 8y agoI saw a few posts on Reddit about how the Apple Watch basically saved people's life: https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleWatch/comments/a40qm5/heading_to_a_cardiologist/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleWatch/comments/a40qm5/heading_... https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleWatch/comments/9zrdq5/how_an_apple_watch_potentially_saved_my_life/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleWatch/comments/9zrdq5/how_an_a... I'm sure there is a lot more. (Also all the people losing weight)
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- fargo 8y agoSorry for the stupid question, what do you mean by people losing weight?
- aboutruby 8y agoHere are two examples: https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleWatch/comments/8nk4vr/apple_watch_has_change_my_life_on_to_june/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleWatch/comments/8nk4vr/apple_wa... https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleWatch/comments/8pm0qr/my_apple_watch_is_one_of_the_most_important/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleWatch/comments/8pm0qr/my_apple...
- p1esk 8y agoIt tracks your calories, exercize time, and number of hours you’ve been active (walked for at least a minute).
- threeseed 8y agoApple added gamification elements to the Apple Watch. “Closing the rings” which means completing 100% of the move, stand and exercise targets adds a competitive element to fitness which has worked well for many users.
- rootusrootus 8y agoI haven't yet found the rings and other features to be nearly as motivating as when all of my friends had Fitbits and we were connected through their service. That was one thing that kept me from switching faster, I didn't want to give up the Fitbit social network.
- melling 8y agoIn the future everyone will wear a smartwatch. My thesis was health and safety. https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/in-the-future-everyone-will-wear-a-smartwatch/comment-page-1/ https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/in-the-future-everyo...
- MereInterest 8y agoWhen tech companies are subject to the same level of data protection as health care providers, complete with with HIPAA penalties for failure, then I might trust them with medical data.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoWould HIPAA not apply to tech companies when handling health data?
- danso 8y agoI don’t think so. HIPAA defines the “covered entities” — e.g. hospitals, health plans — that must follow its regulations. Being a company that handles health data does not automatically make you a covered entity. https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/faq/190/who-must-comply-with-hipaa-privacy-standards/index.html https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/faq/190/who-must...
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- tedivm 8y agoThis isn't 100% accurate. While I can't say much about the case of the apple watch, I can say that there are a ton of tech companies which are not covered entities but which do fall under HIPAA guidelines. For example, the company I work at is not a covered entity because we do have access to PHI we have certain regulations we have to follow. Further, we have to sign BAAs with any covered entity we work with defining who is responsible for what. Any company which deals with heathcare information should always assume they fall under HIPAA until they've hired lawyers who tell them otherwise.
- ddebernardy 8y agoIf there are any MDs around, I'd be curious to know if there's some kind of data-driven baseline about there being a regular heart beat to begin with, or if there being one is an underlying assumption that's taken for granted. (Either way, kudos to Apple for contributing to health science.)
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- thornjm 8y agoMed Student here so I know just about nothing... We’ve monitored hearts for a long time. It is common for a heart to skip a beat or maybe double a beat occasionally (a stethoscope on your own heart for 30 mins would demonstrate that). I don’t think Atrial Fibrillation is ever a normal sign.
- sisu2019 8y agoI really like the humble attitude. When I was studying CS I was like "let me through, I know everything" (I don't). Good for you and thanks for the info.
- plg 8y agoWhen ECG in Canada?
- deanclatworthy 8y agoSeems Apple is having problems getting the ECG feature approved outside the US. I've heard nothing for a few months from the EU about this passing over this side of the pond.
- MBCook 8y agoIf they’re going to announce more countries I would expect it at WWDC.
- gambiting 8y agoYeah. My wife is actually looking to buy one(here in UK) but when we discovered in an Apple Store that it doesn't have ECG support we decided to hold off for now. Maybe at some point once it's enabled.
- buboard 8y agoi would like this in a watch that doesnt need charging every week. i dont care for touchscreens and games.
- kelnage 8y agoYou may be interested in a Garmin smartwatch then. They are primarily designed for exercise, so have very good optical-based wrist heart rate sensors, and are designed to minimise battery usage - I can easily get a week and more out of mine (a Garmin Fenix 5), even whilst making heavy use of its GPS and other functionality.
- elektor 8y agoI use an Amazfit BiP which does steps+ heart rate + sleep and lasts a month on battery. Would highly recommend to you.
- rimliu 8y agoWithings are about to introduce something with this capability.
- threeseed 8y agoIt really depends on if you sleep with your watch or not. If you don’t then battery life is really irrelevant because you can rest your watch on a pad and have it charge just like if it were a normal watch.
- saagarjha 8y agoAlthough, this can matter if you are separated from a place to charge your watch, or somehow forget to charge it.
- dbg31415 8y agoYeah, it's good at spotting issues... but man, health monitoring creeps me out. I don't want to live in a world where insurance companies and employers force us to hand over this data. Just feels really creepy to me. Like way over the line.
- hellofunk 8y agoI don't want to live in a world where insurance companies or employers have any need or incentive to have this data. Like most developed nations outside the U.S. for example.
- adventured 8y agoUniversal healthcare systems merely change the point of information demand based on who is responsible for the cost, from private companies to governments. The notion that the authoritarian-creep and spy-on-everyone mentality that continues rapidly spreading in most developed nations, won't apply to this type of healthcare data, is obviously false. There is no entity that wants to track people more than governments (and in all possible regards), it's not even remotely close. It doesn't matter whether we're talking about the US, France, UK, Australia, South Korea, Japan or Germany.
- dbg31415 8y agoI'm from the US, but I live in a country with "national health care" and... look it sucks. You know what I miss? 1990s era health care for tech workers in the US. When you went in and everything was covered for a $20 co-pay. You want a specific medication, or a non-generic medication in Australia? Too bad. It's not that it costs more, you just can't get it. Things like Wellbutrin are as illegal as crack. And if you do something like tell your doctor that you tried a bunch of medications and Vyvanse is what works best... they'll literally treat you like someone trying to score opiates. They don't like it when you have an opinion on medications, and you get all sorts of lectures about how bad drug advertising is. It's a very dated, "I'm the doctor, you have to do what I say..." mentality. And the wait times... "Oh, did you need back surgery? Because you're under 65 and you are over weight, that means you're now bottom on the list... and you'll have to wait for 1-2 years to have this done." A co-worker of mine here is a larger woman, but she just paid out of pocket rather than go on a 2-year wait list. Oh, and the recovery room... there were like 4 people crammed in one room sharing one bathroom. Doctors came in and were talking about care and medical details, in front of total strangers and her visiting guests. No privacy at all. The government would absolutely use health / fitness data to prioritize care... it's not that everyone gets unlimited treatment, they still have budgets. What else? Remember those classes in college where you couldn't understand the professor because he had such a thick accent? Yeah, that's pretty much every doctor here now. You go to the ER and you need stitches, you end up waiting for a few hours and when you're finally seen the doctor is like, "Why weren't you escalated faster?" "I couldn't understand what your triage nurse was saying, she doesn't speak English... and I haven't got a clue if she understood me... she just told me to sit and wait..." My friend needed 14 stitches and waited over 3 hours in the ER holding a bloody towel on her hand. Only got someone to do something when she started dripping blood on the floor after it had soaked through the towel. Anyway I know health care sucks in the US, and I do want to get to a point where governments pick up the bill... but holy hell, if the choices at present are what we have in the US or what they have in Australia... man, they both really suck. If you're someone with a job, and with any money, the US model works slightly better.
- lez 8y agoApple Watch is technically capable of detecting your heart rate. NSA is capable of enforcing Apple to feed this data to them, real time if needed. Never wear an Apple Watch during lying to powerful people, your heart rate will give you away.
- dave84 8y agoThat would be overkill considering they can extract your heart rate in real time from a video.
- xtagon 8y agoHow is this possible? Honest question, I've never heard of this before.
- amelius 8y agohttps://www.wired.co.uk/article/mit-algorithm https://www.wired.co.uk/article/mit-algorithm
- reverend_gonzo 8y agohttps://web.stanford.edu/class/cs231a/prev_projects_2016/finalReport.pdf https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs231a/prev_projects_2016/fin... https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertglatter/2018/01/30/novel-video-camera-can-monitor-your-heart-rate-using-only-your-face/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertglatter/2018/01/30/novel-... Essentially, using appropriate image analysis, they can sense the pulse of blood moving through the skin
- dave84 8y agoThe other comments provided the academic sources, but the Cardiio app on my iPhone accurately takes my heart rate from my face with the selfie camera and that was released in 2012 I think.
- spyder 8y agoSkin color change or head motion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhZXDgG9oSk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhZXDgG9oSk
- Waterluvian 8y agoI can see a future where my doctor gives me a wristband to wear for a month then return as a part of each annual checkup. Though maybe it gets even better than that and we just all start wearing watches again. I want that feature but I'm not a watch wearer.
- GuiA 8y agoThe future is your insurance company making you wear a smart watch 24/7 if you don’t want to pay a huge premium. I predict it’s going to be a huge quagmire over the next decade or so.
- chii 8y agoIt would be a huge invasion of privacy for an insurance company to do this - and not only privacy, but the fact that insurance companies can discriminate based on this data means that the healthy don't end up subsidising the unhealthy (which is the whole point of insurance). SO premiums go up regardless, and only the insurance company win in this scenario. Right now, the right choice is to combat this problem before it becomes a real problem. Before it sets root as cultrually acceptable to hand over your biometrics data to private companies without the right payment and compensation.
- GuiA 8y agoI completely agree with your sentiment. Sadly given the state of privacy, healthcare, lobbying, etc in the US, it is something I am very worried about.
- eric-hu 8y ago> but the fact that insurance companies can discriminate based on this data means that the healthy don't end up subsidising the unhealthy (which is the whole point of insurance). I agree with your premise about the point of insurance. How is the discussed idea any different than insurance companies giving different rates to older people and denying coverage for pre existing conditions, in terms of discrimination against the non healthy?
- brandonb 8y agoI work at a related company (Cardiogram), and there's a surprising amount of signal locked in the humble heart rate sensor -- we've run multiple studies with UCSF showing accurate detection of sleep apnea, high blood pressure, and even diabetes using off-the-shelf heart rate sensors and a deep neural network, DeepHeart: https://blog.cardiogr.am/screening-with-wearables-what-do-the-clinical-guidelines-support-1877baa32dd9 https://blog.cardiogr.am/screening-with-wearables-what-do-th... If you're an engineer or payer relations expert and you'd like to help build the future of healthcare, definitely drop us a line! hello@cardiogr.am. We're especially looking for Javascript engineers, Android engineers, and salespeople with payer experience.
- vowelless 8y agoLink doesn't work.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- brandonb 8y agoWeird - I was able to reproduce an error in loading https://blog.cardiogr.am/screening-with-wearables-what-do-the-clinical-guidelines-support-1877baa32dd9 https://blog.cardiogr.am/screening-with-wearables-what-do-th... by refreshing. I'll investigate, but for now, try refreshing the page.
- eli 8y agoSomething's wrong with your DNS: https://dnschecker.org/#A/blog.cardiogr.am https://dnschecker.org/#A/blog.cardiogr.am
- taspeotis 8y agoThey forgot to renew their domain: Domain name: cardiogr.am Registrar: abcdomain (ABCDomain LLC) Status: on hold ... Registered: 2015-03-17 Last modified: 2019-03-17 Expires: 2019-03-17
- zzzeek 8y agothis is kind of a trivial question but is the apple watch HR monitor known to be better than that of FitBit? I got a Charge 3 for Christmas and I barely even wear it anymore, as it would say things like "95 bpm" when I'm working out and I'm clearly at around 135 bpm. you can say things like "oh wear it higher / lower / tighter" whatever but if it's that prone to being 40 bpm off the mark, what use is it.
- dareiff 8y agoOne-off comment, but the new band has really improved HR detection for me. I went from the rubber strap (with holes every centimeter or so) to the adjustable velcro strap and it's night & day. It went from being 100% useless on runs to _actually_ keeping accurate detection the entire run.
- julien_c 8y agoWhat do you mean by the velcro strap? Is it the "Sport loop" (https://store.storeimages.cdn-apple.com/4982/as-images.apple.com/is/image/AppleInc/aos/published/images/4/4/44/alu/44-alu-space-sport-loop-black-nc-s4-grid?wid=540&hei=550&fmt=jpeg&qlt=80&op_usm=0.5,0.5&.v=1538158577243 https://store.storeimages.cdn-apple.com/4982/as-images.apple...)?
- tibbon 8y agoMy cardiologist has looked at it when I'm hooked up to a full 12-lead EKG and has noted how pretty solid the measurements seem to be. If it's on a slightly looser setting, sometimes it initially catches only half the tempo for a second, but then locks in. This is on an Apple Watch 4.
- idDriven 8y agoPublic Service Announcement: You can just check your pulse manually for free. AFIB will be irregularly irregular. As as comparing cancer to AFIB it's definitely not accurate to compare the two directly. A very common cause of AFIB in people younger than 60 for example is 'holiday heart' short-term AFIB related to binge drinking, it is generally self-resolving and transitory, and generally does not require treatment especially if asymptomatic. Cancer to my knowledge generally does not self-resolve.
- danieltillett 8y agoActually most cancers do self-resolve in that your immune system kills them before they get large. This is one of the reasons being on immune suppression drugs leads to a significantly higher risk of developing cancer that gets large enough to be detected.
- idDriven 8y agoYeah I should change the wording above to established cancer, thanks.
- saagarjha 8y ago> Public Service Announcement: You can just check your pulse manually for free. Not continuously throughout the day, you can't.
- idDriven 8y ago60 Beats Per Minute feels a lot different than 100 BPM, which feels different than 140+ BPM. Once you get a feeling for how different BPM's feel to you if you have an abnormal elevation, like rapid heart rate at rest that would be an indication to manually check your pulse. I'm just trying to say if you want to buy one that's cool but the premise that's it some kind of must-have life-saving accessory is questionable to me for the majority of people.
- abraae 8y agoI have AF and once you're aware of it it's pretty easy to tell when your heart's "gone out". Quick check of pulse confirms it as you say. The trouble is really when you're first getting to grips with it. That's the scary time. Everyone's AF is somewhat different though I imagine.
- goombastic 8y agoWaiting for insurance providers to deny payments basis this data next.
- redsavagefiero 8y agoA lot of people are overlooking the ultimate consumers of this data or being the usual SV shills. This data and all PHI/PII can be resold to insurance packaged in slightly different ways. Have fun with your 20th century issues in the 21st.
- gleenn 8y agoWhile I think your fear is an important one to keep in mind, Apple doesn't share your data without your consent, and the data is encrypted. https://www.apple.com/privacy/approach-to-privacy/ https://www.apple.com/privacy/approach-to-privacy/
- ip26 8y agoIt's always seemed to me like accurate risk profiling is a positive thing. We don't mind that smokers pay higher rates, for example. After all their projected medical costs are more than double. Otherwise, nonsmokers would be forced to subsidize the choices of smokers. Things like congenital issues should be protected (not a choice), but if someone leads an unhealthy lifestyle and actuaries can work out a good expected cost, why not? Is that so different from a risky driver?
- hatsunearu 8y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0sv3Kuurhw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0sv3Kuurhw Super underrated channel (British humor, anyone)--shows how the Apple Watch's ECG feature can be actually bad for overall health. edit: though the amount of positive outcomes (the reddit thread) makes me reassess this...
- lucb1e 8y agoEdit: reading further in the thread, this comment said it better than I did (though they aren't speaking about the video, it makes the same argument): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19409734 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19409734 > It should be noted though that this study does not say that an Apple Watch will overall provide medical benefits. It also doesn't follow automatically from the fact that it detects things with a certain reliability. The interactions of early detection and medical benefits and downsides are complicated and it will require a lot more science to figure out whether a device like an Apple Watch can provide benefit. The only thing I would add is the last thing I mentioned in this comment, namely that you might consider buying one for a higher risk person like your grandpa rather than yourself. --- (original comment) --- Watched the whole thing, basically the argument is that overdiagnosis leads to people worrying (increasing stress) when the doctor says "based on this I can't give you drugs since the drugs aren't completely harmless", or the doc might recommend follow up tests that give ambiguous results and escalate (in the example) to an operation to test a certain thing where the patient has a 1 in 3k chance of dying from the procedure itself. Additionally, experiments where they strap a bunch of such devices to healthy patients (basically what apple's watch does as well, especially the young and modern people will buy it) and while it lead to more diagnoses, it didn't decrease the chance of stroke or heart attacks in that group. I don't think any of this is a significant reason not to buy it. I'm not going to buy one for various reasons, but this isn't one of them. It is good to be aware of the arguments, though: it might lead to someone buying one for their grandma rather than healthy and young(ish) self.
- hatsunearu 8y agoI'd definitely buy this for my gramps or something like that, and I'd buy it myself if I had an iPhone, just because I like smartwatches. But what I am concerned about is that this kind of stuff is a Pandora's box that can cause some undeserved panic...
- eecc 8y agoI don’t understand, even Reuters is giving random numbers: A third of those whose watches detected an irregular pulse were confirmed to have atrial fibrillation using the ECG technology, researchers said. Some 84 percent of the irregular pulse notifications were later confirmed to have been AF episodes, data showed. What is it then, 1/3 or 4/5?
- Dylan16807 8y agoThe ECG only confirmed 1/3, so they tried better tests and got it to 5/6.
- xaduha 8y agoRelated https://cardio-cloud.ru https://cardio-cloud.ru Dongle+app supports Android and iOS. No prices on En page though, but the official price for the Russian market is 3500 RUB ~ $54
- jplayer01 8y agoI just want this kind of thing to finally hit consumer devices. I've been reading about this stuff for years now, and it's really great stuff, but it's all limited to the people who get to be in these studies.
- baxtr 8y agoSo the Watch is no consumer device?
- DennisAleynikov 8y agoIt's an iPhone accessory, not really a consumer product. It can't be used outside of the apple ecosystem without involving an iphone in the process and that stops it from being a widely adopted wearable product. Apple's marketshare is dropping with every yeah and they sell only roughly double the previous smartwatch incumbent, samsung despite apple having a generally more affluent userbase. I hope this tech reaches more people with less restrictive hardware options.
- known 8y agoDoes it display systolic and diastolic numbers?
- JasonADrury 8y agoIf anyone is interested, I’ve spent the last couple of years trying to break into the medical space from a consumer perspective. We are now ready to move to the next step and I’m looking for co-founder positions to fill important roles. Check out https://www.kb4e.com https://www.kb4e.com Would love to hear from you if our mission resonates with anyone.
- tuxguy 8y agoSome insightful analysis here : https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1106956668439617537.html https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1106956668439617537.html
- xtrimsky1234 8y agoI have a watch with also an irregular heart beat detection (Garmin). It sometimes detects irregular heart rates when I play video games. Usually in a very intense scenario such as a top 3 in a battle royale game.